Fort Sill

Military reservation in Comanche County, southwest Oklahoma; population (1990) of 12,100. It is located 6 km/4 mi north of Lawton. It is the headquarters and training centre of the US Army Field Artillery.

Fort Sill was established as a cavalry base in 1869 by Philip Sheridan. It was created to control the indigenous peoples and to maintain order in the area. The fort served as the base for many campaigns against the American Indians, and was the scene of the surrender of the Comanche and Kiowa in the mid 1870s. Such tribes as the Wichita, Kiowa, and Comanche were housed here and were taught white farming techniques. The Apache leader Geronimo, who was imprisoned here, is buried on the reservation. By the turn of the 20th century, the facility was in decline, but it gained new prominence when the field artillery school was established in 1911.